Halo 2: the strike begins
by pistol whipper
Summary: How halo 2 could play out. Master Chief meets a friend from the past
1. chapter 1: the strike begins

Halo 2: The Strike Begins  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Halo characters or vehicles.  
  
Prologue: The Longsword fighter launched from the bay at maximum burn, flying through space for its life. Behind it the ringworld Halo was ripped to pieces killing everything in its path. There were only two ships leaving the ravaged world. The master chief's lone Longsword, and a pelican containing ODST Hell Jumpers and a single humanoid combat flood. Yet unbeknownst to them there was an even more dangerous being aboard their small craft, the infection form of the flood, just waiting to take over the ship once everyone was asleep.  
  
Chapter 1: Landing  
  
Finally after three years of space flight in the tiny Longsword Master Chief was finally home, he had reached earth. He was coming down in a massive city on the Asian continent; it now looked nothing like it had when he had left to combat the covenant. The city was now floating over 1,000 meters above the surface of the continent. The chief landed his fighter in an abandoned parking lot on the outskirts of the city, gazing up at the gargantuan structures rising up above him. As he looked around this new city he realized something was wrong; it was deserted! He immediately began to search for any sign of life or a vehicle. He entered a house and was washed in an oddly familiar scent, death. The smell of death was everywhere. There were no dead bodies to speak of but still the smell lingered. Master Chief continued through the house, when he reached the stairs he heard an all too familiar sound, it was the sound of plasma fire. He dashed to a window to see what the hell was going on. Outside there was a mad dash of covenant Elites running down the street in fear of a single being chasing them, it was the combat form of Corporal Lance O'Rielly, one of the men of the surviving pelican.  
The chief, being unarmed, didn't dare to attack the covenant or the flood. He rummaged through the house looking for any type of weapon. Finally he came upon a gun rack and smashed the glass out to retrieve a Semi-auto S&W pistol and an AK-47. He then charged down the stairs and out the door to kill the covenant forces and the lone flood if he had to.  
The covenant keep running and shooting back but they can't keep it up. Behind them one of the explosive flood wobbled out of a side ally right into the path of an elite. The unfortunate elite bumped into him and turned around, but it is too late the flood has already started the detonation. It explodes sending infection forms everywhere. They attack the elites and convert them into combat forms shortly there after.  
The chief saw a single, familiar vehicle coming down the road, it was a warthog loaded with marines. When the marines got a little closer the chief decided to take action he jumped out the window letting his shields take the brunt of the impact and began firing with the pistol. He took down two of the flood in about five seconds but the others leaped out of the way of the chief's assault. The other three flood turned and went flying at the chief; he whipped out his AK and opened fire. Only one of the flood survived this latest barrage. It charged the chief and had its head blown off by a stray bullet from the LAG gun on the hog.  
  
Sorry this is so short this is my first post and some of my other posts will probably be this short as well. 


	2. Chapter 2: Reunion

Chapter 2: Reunion  
  
The unexpected barrage by the marine squad caught master chief forcefully in the shoulder, thankfully his shields held, though at low power. Simultaneously the marines ceased fire and a lone armor clad figure walked out onto the battle field. It was Spartan 116, Kelly. She realized who the other Spartan was and snapped into a smart salute, the master chief saluted back and gave the signal for at ease. Kelly gave the order for her squad to relax and that the Master Chief was not an enemy.  
Chief walked over to the dead flood and checked to see if they had anything of value to him, he took three still usable plasma grenades and a plasma rifle, dropping the AK. He turned to the waiting hog and climbed into the gunner turret, surprising the marine about to retake command of it. Kelly told the marine, in code, to take a seat between her and the other marine. On the way back to Gamma base the chief was about to open a private channel to Kelley, but she signaled him to stop.  
After a short drive with no incident they reached the base. It was bunkered down behind razor and barbed wire, and a solid wall of tristeel two feet thick, it was almost impenetrable. A section of the wall folded in and allowed the hog to enter. Upon entering Chief noticed several things first of things looked much more advanced than when he'd left and some of the weapons looked like those he saw on halo, yet slightly altered. Kelley now opened a COM channel and told the chief about things since he had left, Covenant had come to earth and begun to destroy the human race at the source, also a pelican caring humanoid flood crashed into a large skyscraper and unleashed a horrible new type of creature, something called the Flood.  
"There is a base like this one on each of our floating cities, though this is probably one of the smaller ones, only about 500 marines stay here" Kelly reported to the chief.  
"Where do the flood stay at and what weapons do you have to fight them with"  
"They stay around the original crash site or in the sewers, taking out anything that comes to close. We have got the standard shotgun and pistol that you're used to fight with, those are fair against the flood, but we have made improvements on other weapons while you were gone. The plasma rifles the elites use now fire twice as fast, don't over heat, and are easy to reload or recharge. The plasma pistol now has a greater tracking ability, a higher overcharge limit, and can be easily recharged and reloaded. The needler is now almost our most powerful weapon; the needle detonation has been amplified, and was given a much higher rate of fire. We gave the fuel rod cannon a larger blast area, longer range, and 39% more accuracy. My personal favorite in the covenant arsenal, the plasma sniper, has just been discovered it has been amplified with Cortana's original Plasma Lance technology; it can blow through an elite's shields and armor with a single round" Said Kelly as she showed the chief each weapon to the Chief.  
"Alright give me a shotgun and one of those new Fuel Rod Cannons, and let's kill some flood" 


	3. chapter 3: cleansing

Chapter 3: cleansing  
  
A small squad of 12 ATV's raced down the empty streets of the abandoned city in search of the flood spawning grounds, the sewers. They went immediately to the sewage station management facility but it was devastated, there had been serious flood activity there. They proceeded on to the sewage lines and encountered the first flood. The chief jumped off the ATV just in time, a human combat form had launched itself at him and was smeared on the front of the light vehicle. All the marines and the two Spartans leapt out of their ATV's and started blasting away at the flood. The chief got up and opened up with his shotgun immediately blowing a two foot wide hole through the decaying body of one of the flood. Under the vicious assault of the marines the flood fell quickly, but then it started going wrong, one of the ATV's exploded killing two of the marines, and injuring one other. Master Chief pulled out a small med-kit and injected bio-foam into the small shrapnel hole in the injured marines' chest. Then the chief walked over to the now overturned ATV's and he took an abandoned ghost he found in a side alley. They sped off into the sewer finding surprisingly little opposition from the flood. They dismounted and began to look for a base of sorts in the tunnel. Then came an all too familiar sound, that tiny tinkling of flood feet on plate metal. From the skyscraper burst a tsunami of flood infectors, they swarmed toward the small group of soldiers, just turning to run when the chief barked for them to stay and fight them off. They brought up their riffles without protest, but it was clear they weren't happy about sticking around to be flood food. They opened fire one round from their riffles taking out five of the tiny things, but that was nothing compared to the chief. He was using his pistol to shoot through multiple flood causing chain reactions throughout the entire mass. Soon the flood overtook one of the marines and converted him. He was quickly cut down by the marines overpowering assault rifle fire.  
They slowly continued down the tunnel pointing flashlights and weapons everywhere. Then out of the piercing darkness cane a new beast, an infected dog. It had tentacles growing out of its back and each leg; its head had been torn completely off to allow room for the sensors the flood used. The terrible dog launched itself toward the frightened soldiers but was suddenly stopped as the chief grabbed it by its legs and smashed it into the walls; crushing its ribcage and killing the infection inside of it instantly died. The soldiers stood amazed at the master chiefs amazing strength and speed.  
Silently he marched to the dead dog, at one time it was a monstrous mastiff, and it had just been infected. The chief turned and commanded the soldiers to head back to base leaving him most of the ammunition, he didn't want to risk their lives in this hellhole he had uncovered. They went to their ATV's and sped off to the base. The chief loaded onto the ghost and went deeper into the tunnel to hell. 


	4. chapter 4: salvation

Chapter 4: salvation  
The small swarm of ATV's went into the base and reported to Kelly all that had happened. She was slightly stunned that the chief would do something like that, but then realized it was his character, and he had fought the flood many times before and much more effectively than they had. She gave command to Chief Alan Gonzolaz and took off to help the master chief, equipped with the standard pistol, a rocket launcher, a laser rifle adapted from the covenant plasma rifle, and some more ammunition for the shotgun and assault rifle. She grabbed a warthog, shoved all of the extra ammunition she could into the back seats, and screamed after the chief to give any help she could.  
The flood just kept coming, thousands more than on halo. The chief was glad he had taken the marines ammunition, he was almost out as it was, when Kelly finally got there, she jumped out and fired a single rocket toward the middle of the flood, killing most of them. Master Chief was relieved to see Kelly, and the extra ammunition, but he was worried. He had never seen so many flood at one time, even when trying to destroy the ringworld halo. He feared that they would be overwhelmed and destroyed, or worse, made into terrible super flood, almost invincible with their shields and augmented bodies.  
They nodded to each other and opened a private COM line; they were safe under the foot thick lead of the tunnels.  
"Thought you might need some help Chief," said Kelly, "I brought some extra ammo, and a rocket launcher, as you saw."  
"Thanks Kelly, you don't know how much I needed the ammo and help" the chief responded, as he ejected his final clip from the assault rifle and put his last round in the shotgun, "but you need to get back to your base, it needs a defense if I fail."  
"I have left a trusted commander in charge, he will not fall easily, I am staying to help you." She said forcefully.  
They walked deeper into the tunnel together, ready for anything that could come.  
  
Sorry for such a short chapter it just seemed like a good place to stop. And just so you know I don't plan on this being a romance, I just thought it would be cool to have Kelly make a return. 


	5. Chapter 5: attack

Chapter 5: Salvation  
  
Explosions rocked the tunnel as the two Spartans blasted their way through the continuing onslaught of the flood. Grenade after grenade was thrown down the tunnel, rockets blew flood body parts all over the tunnel, and shotgun and laser fire light the unending dark. The flood had almost endless hordes of human combat forms that just kept attacking.  
  
Finally after eight hours of fighting it seemed it was over, they reached the inner sanctum of the flood. There were some of the most powerful of the infections here, covenant, human, and any other creature the flood could infect. By this time the master chief and Kelly were beginning to run low on ammunition again, even though they had been scavenging weapons and ammo from the corpses of the flood. Then they saw it, the monstrous sack that was the flood queen. This is what the entire flood colony had been protecting, they lived as a hive, and if this was destroyed they all would eventually die without her guidance. They dropped several unprimed grenades all around the humungous wriggling mass, shoved some inside, and then walked back to the tunnel. They turned simultaneously the master chief threw a grenade, and Kelly launched a rocket, detonating all of the grenades surrounding the queen. She was killed instantly and the remaining flood went wild, they were attacking each other, and just standing still without any instruction from their leader.  
  
All of the grenades going off at once had caused the tunnel to begin to collapse. The Spartans could survive the collapse, but they couldn't get out if they didn't escape now. They sped down the tunnel with the walls and ceiling collapsing around them. Any flood that were still alive in the tunnels were now dead or dying. The end of the tunnel was just ahead when a large chunk of the ceiling landed on the two Spartans right outside of the exit. The monstrous slab began to shake and then rise as the Spartans amazing strength came into play. Slowly the slab was thrown off and they escaped with only their lives.  
  
When the chief and Kelly returned to the base they were greeted by the hundreds of marines waiting for them. They drove into the compound with the marines cheering wildly for them. Finally after the meager meal they had a report came from admiral Jonathan Birkston on the last inner colony Naval Base not glassed by the covenant, Revolution. The master chief and Kelly were commended for their cleansing of earth, but they had a new mission now. They were to make a heads on assault on the covenant homeworld. They had three ships waiting for them, the pillar of autumn II, the pillar of life, and the pillar of hope. The admiral ordered them to be aboard tomorrow.  
"No rest for the weary" Cortana quipped.  
  
The Spartans boarded the massive pillar of hope, an aptly named ship for their mission, and found themselves in a general's suite. The two Spartans were prepared of the cryo sleep and were put in specially adapted cryo-tubes just for their bulky MJOLNIR armor. All the marines were being prepped to be stored in their cryo tubes, except the crew that would be making sure the AI was functioning correctly. They were going to the Beta Centui system, to the covenant homeworld.  
  
SIX MONTHS LATER  
  
As the fog lifted from the cryo tube the chief was being stored in the chief was awaking. His skin burned with the fire of cryo stasis with the heavy MJOLNIR armor. He blinked away the pain and rose from the tube without assistance, startling the cryo technicians. Once out he was told to see Captain Johnston at the bridge. This seemed all too familiar to the chief but he had to go anyway. There was no crisis that the he had to run through but yet he ran to the bridge so he could get to his mission as soon as possible.  
  
Upon reaching the bridge the chief was told he would be the first sent down onto the covenant homeworld, called by the humans Harvest, because of the massive fields that spanned across the planet. The chief had a choice drop in an ODST drop tube with a squad of hell jumpers or take a pelican down with the marines. The chief took the tube; it was faster and had a higher survival rate in hostile territory than the pelicans. He went to the armory to find some weapons to take with him  
  
The armory was filled with dozens of new weapons the chief had never seen before. He took a new, high caliber pistol that was surely the descendant of his original pistol, a new battle rifle that had less ammo than the original assault rifle, but packed more of a punch with a scope, and a plasma sniper stolen and modified from the Ascendant Justice, the ship the chief had commandeered after the destruction of halo. He was ready for drop at 0700 hours; it was currently 0600. The chief went and searched out his squad of ODST's, they were uneasy with the Spartan in their midst's; their uneasiness around them started back when the Spartans were children, they had defeated them and injured their pride in much too many training Sims. One of the ODST's, named Jacob who had drawn the shortest straw, came up to the chief and welcomed him to the squad with a very distasteful look on his face.  
  
Master Chief sat and took care of his weapons and learned how they worked and were loaded, especially the plasma sniper. He went to a storage locker and took ten clips for the battle rifle, twelve for the pistol, and five for the sniper. He was ready to drop. The chief came to the launch bay for the Orbital Drop Tubes and found one specially modified to allow enough space for his new MJOLNIR mk. 6 battle armor. It had been stripped of most of the padding and made slightly larger than most of the normal pods.  
  
There was a muffled whumph, and then the dead quiet of space as the pods were launched. They zoomed through the space to the fields of Harvest. Upon entering the atmosphere the pods burst into bright red flame and tore a path through the sky. After what seemed like an hour to the chief the pods smashed into the rolling fields of the covenant homeworld, the pods hatch blew open and the ODST's and the chief leaped out weapons ready for action. All around them for miles was an endless field of wheat. The fearless ODST's whooped and hollered at another successful drop, but the chief remained still, something wasn't right. He boosted his motion tracker to max range but had no contacts. Then out of the fields came four enormous grey monsters, Brutes, they carried a bandolier of odd stick grenades and a powerful grenade launcher with a menacing blade attached. The marines brought all weapons to bear on the lethal behemoths, which seemed only to infuriate them more. The chief emptied his pistol into on of the larger brutes, seemingly the leader, and finally dropped him with a shot to his neck, severing his head and killing the monster instantly. The other brutes saw their leader die and converged on the Master Chief. He pulled out his battle rifle and fired into the charging trio of brutes. They merely shrugged of the pain the burning lead induced. The marines fired of entire clips of their battle riffles into the brute's backs. Finally the vicious monsters died with a guttural roar. After the battle the marines looked around and saw ten of their squad mates dead and five of others sliced open or with shrapnel wounds. The causalities were enormous for such a small fight. The chief was horrified at the carnage the five brutes had incurred, only four brutes and fifteen dead, he was amazed.  
  
Sorry the chapters have been so short. Please R&R! 


End file.
